


Phantom Pains

by Penguin_Lord



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Angst, Gen, Holocaust, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-03-26
Packaged: 2018-01-17 02:16:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1370218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguin_Lord/pseuds/Penguin_Lord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> It started out as phantom pains. Pin pricks and gooseflesh that went as soon as it came. Ludwig initially dismissed it altogether. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phantom Pains

**Author's Note:**

> Because for all that I love Hetalia, there are some deeper themes that must be addressed.

It started out as phantom pains. Pin pricks and gooseflesh that went as soon as it came. Ludwig initially dismissed it altogether. He was so busy back in those days, dealing with Adolf’s constant schemes and taking care of his people who were still suffering from the harsh and unfair stipulations that those other bastard countries imposed upon them.

By the time the pains turned into severe shocks that would not go away for hours, he was already so immersed in the war that his pride would not let him stop and examine the hurts. Now he wished he had. Now he wished had taken a day, an afternoon off to investigate sooner.

The pain would not stop. He did not know what was causing it at first. Even though they were at war, his people seemed happy, proud that they, for the first time since 1918, had something, someone to look up to. Adolf was uplifting his people. Sure, his beliefs about the Aryan race were a little weird, but Ludwig himself fit so well into that perfect stereotype of blond hair and blue eyes that Adolf did not bring it up often. Sure, there were some nasty rumors floating around about Adolf’s tactics regarding the Jews, but Ludwig dismissed those as Allied propaganda. 

It wasn’t until he lay crippled on the floor one day after an extremely bad attack that he decided to figure out what was causing the pain.

How he wished he hadn’t tried to find the cause.

How he wished he had tried to find the cause sooner.

The bodies still gave him nightmares.

Bodies stacked everywhere, young, old, male, female; it did not matter.

On a sunny afternoon he took a surprise trip to one of the work camps that Adolf set up for the Jews he imprisoned.

That was the afternoon Adolf changed to Hitler in Ludwig’s mind.

That was the afternoon Ludwig discovered the very worst of humanity.

He would never forget the gaunt, emaciated faces that stared back at him from the other side of the barbed fence. He would never forget the smell of burned bodies as they were cremated in those ovens. He felt the stabbing pain again, this time worse as he watched before his very eyes   
four young Jewish girls be killed.

At that moment he knew. He would never forget. And he would never forgive.

He would never forgive Hitler.

He would never forgive himself.

So, when the other countries spoke of genocide, of the holocaust, of the _single greatest loss of life ever known in human history ___, Germany said nothing to defend himself. When Poland, France, and Austria gave the numbers for the Jews and other groups that had been killed by Hitler, Germany said nothing. When Britain and America and Australia and France and China and Russia gave the numbers of families that would be without a loved one, Germany said nothing.

_After all, how could he?_


End file.
